My name is Tony, and am currently starting to work on a project for me and possible to later produce for others in my situation.

I have only slightly touched the surface of programming. I currently am a computer science major and have been working with computers since XP (pre-SP1); before that I couldn't walk if that give you a hint as to why I am so late in the game.

I have a high technical aptitude and look forward to exchanging ideas with y'all. Currently live in East Texas.

My project started like this, met my significant other about 2 and half years ago, she had a, what I thought, massive freshwater fish tank. I got really into the fish keeping scene over the next year. Skip ahead a year and I built my first reef tank. Had a crappy light over it that was not worth a diddly and then I discovered LEDs on reef tanks. Put some together and have been a fan of them ever since.

Since that time i have upgrade my tank, upgraded my light and everything is working perfectly. Now it's time for me to go even further into the electronics part of it. I want to build a controller for it. Not just a timer on and off type thing, but a simulator of sorts for the brightness, intensity, etc. Basically I want the light I have on it simulate dusk, dawn, sunset, sunrise, cloud movement, and if possible control other things later on, so I need room for expansion.

I expressed my interest on other forums and they said give Arduino look-see, and so here I am. New to the programming world, not even sure what I am getting myself into, but hell, I think if I'm competent enough in computers to remotely fix an offline computer in Australia, i think I should be able to handle a little programming basics.

So, this is where the questions come in.

I read through most of the website and gathered as much information as I could and still was mounds of it left over to absorb that I went into an overload and confused myself entirely.

What exactly do I need to control something like that?- Currently I have 48 LEDs in 12 string series on 4 dimmable drivers by Meanwell with a multi-voltage PSU to control the dimming in 3v increments.- Max current, (before life expectancy of LED shortens drastically) is 1000mA but would like to keep it under that by 50-100mA.

I would like to have everything controlled automatically, but also manual override to show off some of the workings of the light controller.

Expansion options:

I need to get something up front that will accommodate expansion of additional electronics that are in my tank, not just the light.

He said he wanted a manual override to "show off" what his setup can do. He could use an interrupt to have it do a little 1 or 2 minute sequence maybe moving through day and night at a faster pace. Maybe mimic an entire day/night cycle in 2 minutes.

Edit:

Just thought of this... These fish ever have to deal with lightening storms?

I have toyed with the idea of grabbing a range of coordinates over say the Great Barrier Reef and simulate exactly what is occurring over area, but that I would thing, would get far too in depth of what I am wanting for right now.

What I'm looking for right now is just the basics, like what hardware would I need the UNO, the mega etc?

Next questions, and probably the most important to be honest, how will I connect everything to say the UNO?

I'm not looking for a "hold my hand while i put this together" but I haven't actually found anything, while searching for builds for lights, documenting how they actually connected anything.

EDIT: And yes, I want a "time lapsed" override to show off the control ability of it.

EDIT2: I found this while searching as well. http://www.chestersgarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Power-LED-Shield-Application-Examples.pdf

This is similar to what I have set up, but instead of 4 buckpucks I have 4 Meanwell 48-60D and 48 Cree LEDs (21 Royal Blue, 3 Cool Blue, 12 Cool White and 12 Warm White) 4 strings of 12 LEDs in series.

Edit 3: So from what I have gathered from the other threads of builds similar to mine, I was thinking of starting a list of my materials I would need to complete my controller.

So I picked up the Beginning Arduino book and dove right in, but have some questions.

What is the major difference in projects that use the UNO vs the Mega?

I will eventually want to control this wirelessly perhaps even from an iphone app i will design in the furture, complete controll over every aspect of the tank, skimmer, pumps, heater, water circulation, obviously the light, etc.